1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speed bump that is retractable based on the driving parameters of an approaching car, which speed bump can be either fixed at a location or can be portable.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Speeding is a problem on most roads and highways. Today's vehicles are powerful and reliable and are very stable and quiet even at very high speeds. Accordingly, many drivers push their vehicles and go well beyond the speed that is appropriate for the setting within which the vehicle is operating.
One area where speeding vehicles are of particular concern is the special traffic zone such as a school zone or a road construction site. In a school zone, a large number of students are released in a small time frame, flooding the area with these students. The students chase each other, engage in horseplay, or otherwise act as kids and oftentimes dart out into the road without looking to see if traffic is approaching. This is especially true for the younger children at middle and elementary schools. A speeding driver can easily hit a student who, due to being young and inexperienced makes a mistake, or who trips and falls or is pushed by another student and lands on the roadway. A small childhood mistake can lead to very serious consequences.
At a road construction site, workers tend to be in very close proximity to traffic that can zip by at 30 mph, 40 mph, or even elevated highway speeds. One small distraction (talking on the phone, fumbling with the radio, etc.), or other mistake by a driver can lead to serious injury or death of a number of the construction site works.
In order to address such problems and protect pedestrians at special zones, most states have traffic rules for special zones, which traffic rules not only lower the speed through a school zone or a road construction zone, but also raise the fine and points against the driver's license that are associated with a speeding violation within such a zone. Oftentimes, such fines are double or more for a similar infraction that occurs outside of a special zone. While many officers tend to give drivers a small leeway in speeding enforcement, for example, an officer may not ticket a driver on an interstate highway if the driver is within 5 mph of the speed limit, most officers have no tolerance for any amount of speeding within a school zone or a road construction zone. Many localities post an officer at a school zone at the start of a school day and at the end of the school day, both to act as a deterrence as well as to pull over and ticket speeders. Likewise, many construction sites also have one or more officers present, especially on highway construction sites. In fact, many states mandate that the contractor of a highway construction site hire highway patrol officers to help reduce speed at such sites.
These measure help reduce the vehicle speeds through these zones and thus make such zones safer for the students and construction workers. However, there are only a finite number of officers available at any given time, especially on a highway construction site that may extend for many miles. Additionally each officer can only witness and stop so much traffic, and if an officer is ticketing a law breaker, that officer is effectively taken of action from the zone until that officer finishes with the current speeder. Accordingly, despite law enforcement efforts, vehicles continue to speed through these special zones.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a device that helps control the speed of vehicles through a special speed zone such as a school zone or a road construction site. Such a device needs to be able to automatically perform its function in order to complement the finite availability of law enforcement officers. Such a speed control device must be of relatively simple construction and operation and must provide a sufficient level of deterrence to the would be speeder. As increased speed of a vehicle through a special zone correlates with increased danger, the device should be able to increase its level of deterrence to higher speed vehicles.